The present invention relates to content delivery over a cellular radio network, particularly although not exclusively a broadband digital broadcast network.
In a cellular radio network, each cell may be capable of transmitting content on a particular frequency chosen to meet the frequency re-use requirements of the network. The spectral efficiency of such a network is reduced if the network is capable of delivering content, as in the case of a broadband digital broadcast network, as a broadcast to every cell in the network or as a multicast to a subset of cells in the network Such a situation arises in the case of the well-known terrestrial Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB-T) system found in Europe.
FIG. 1, illustrates a prior art broadband digital broadcast network which lacks spectral efficiency as the same content is being delivered using different frequencies in different cells. Thus, in the Figure, the network 1 is made up of a plurality of cells A to K utilising seven frequencies f1 to f7 and content is being multicast to terminals in cells A, B and C on three respective frequencies namely f1, f2 and f3.